THE NEWLY APPOINTED trustee on the Sausalito Marin City school board certainly brings a commitment to local public schools to his new role.

Thomas Newmeyer of Sausalito, an investment executive, is a board member of Willow Creek Academy, the district’s charter school. He also has served as treasurer of an educational scholarship fund.

Obviously, he’s a well-qualified addition to the board.

But his appointment also means that supporters of the charter school now hold four of the five seats on the school board. This creates the appearance that the board has been taken over by Willow Creek backers. During November’s school board race, two Willow Creek supporters ousted two incumbents. They ran a campaign that criticized the district’s financial support for the charter school. They said district funding for the charter school has been shortchanged in favor of the district’s two other campuses – Martin Luther King Jr. Academy middle school and Bayside Elementary School.

This is a school district that doesn’t need a political wedge driven between its charter and traditional schools.

The district has the important job of trying to provide local children with the best possible public education. That job is challenging in a district that also has to bridge wide racial, cultural and economic divisions.

Newmeyer was named to the seat vacated by Whitney Hoyt, who was living in Marin City until she moved out of the district to live closer her job.

It is important to note that the only trustee who voted against Newmeyer’s appointment was Shirley Thornton, who is now the lone Marin City resident on the school board.

The other four board members live in Sausalito.

School board president Mark Trotter said Newmeyer’s appointment had nothing to do with his address and dismissed calls that a qualified Marin City parent be given preference in picking a replacement for Hoyt.

“People need to get past that ‘we,’ ‘they’ stuff,” he said.

Such “stuff’ helped two Willow Creek backers win election in November. Appearance of that divide isn’t decreased by naming a Willow Creek leader to the board’s open seat.

In addition, the school board could have done a much better job of informing voters of the names and qualifications of the candidates seeking the appointment. Repeated requests from Independent Journal reporters for the information went unanswered.

In selecting a new trustee, the board was picking a new representative of district voters, not themselves. Its process curtailed public access to information citizens needed to be involved.

Trotter is correct that people need to consider the needs of the district’s children with a community-wide perspective.

The school board’s handling of this appointment was not a model of community involvement.

Newmeyer deserves credit for his willingness to step forward and devote his time, energy and talent to this important job. After all, as Trotter says, “It’s about the kids.”